While there are some smart home hubs including Homey and HA that can connect to Alexa and relay voice commands, the official Amazon Echo, does not support Zigbee, Z-wave or 433mhz. Also, Google Nest does not these protocols. I’m also not saying that support Matter and Thread is a bad thing. The opposite actually, the more protocols a smart home hub can support, the better.
I indeed might have interpreted your question wrong. I thought you asked for unbiased reviews including pro’s and con’s of each platform, especially for beginners.
I thought I tried to answer that question as honestly and unbiased as possible. However, the word “beginner” implies movement to me. The beginning being the starting point of a certain development. When you look at it like that, then yes, both Homey and HA will have a very steep learning curve. And, trust me, it will be a very long and steep climb for possibly years to come. Things that look easy, will turn out to be very hard and will possibly annoy the hell out of your fellow household members (trust me, it will).
If however, the beginning also means the end for you. Then by all means, pick any smart home hub you like. You will probably be able to do beginners stuff on any of them. If you want to embark on a journey and discover endless possibilities, then Homey and HA, are the only two platforms that currently exist that will support you for a long time.
So, Is it hard? yes!
Is it useful? possibly.
Is it meaningful? I don’t think so.
Is it fun, though? HELL YEAH!
Again, this is my honest unbiased review whilst trying to explain the pros and cons of each platform. I’m sorry if this isn’t the answer you were hoping for.
